I just had a look at #Meta's recent press release about #Threads, and something caught my attention right away.
For the very first time, they're acknowledging another #Fediverse platform alongside #Mastodon. Specifically, they're highlighting that #WordPress can now connect through #ActivityPub.
Now, you know Meta's PR department doesn't say things by accident. So here's why this is a big deal. Last time I checked, WordPress powers a whopping 43% of the Internet. Yeah, you heard that right! If you visit a website, there's a good chance it's using WordPress as its CMS.
Now, if even a fraction of those WordPress sites start federating, it could have a huge impact on the network effect of the Fediverse. Of course, Meta isn't oblivious to this. I've been talking about the potential of WordPress and ActivityPub for quite some time now.
But if you're particularly observant, you might also notice that they mention #Tumblr. We've known for a while that Tumblr is likely to integrate ActivityPub into their platform.
But here's an interesting tidbit: Did you know that one company, Automattic, not only owns Tumblr but is also the driving force behind WordPress?
I don't want to jump to conclusions, but once again, PR departments don't just drop hints randomly. I have a strong feeling that Meta has been having some high-level discussions with Automattic about the future of ActivityPub. It wouldn't surprise me if Meta has some insights into Automattic's upcoming plans for the Fediverse.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri says pretty conclusively they don’t want Threads to be the new app for news and journalists. Makes sense given Meta is threatening to pull news in Canada and California.
Ultimately, Threads is a sanitized space for brands, grifters, and celebrities — all designed to sell you more shit.
Can't delete your #Threads account without also deleting your Instagram, non-chronological feed showing stuff from across the platfrom instead of the people you follow, tight algorithmic control of what you see, wall-to-wall bad brand patter... I've never been less mad about being geoblocked from using an app
As a science communicator, I was interested to explore #threads.
So far, it feels like everyone is shouting everything all at once with no organization or order. There are no hashtags to help discover topics, for example. I mainly see a lot of celebs & influencers I don’t follow.
I’m not sure it can become a place to exchange meaningful ideas. But that’s probably not the point.
I’m happy at #Mastodon & there really is no comparison. It will be interesting to see how it all evolves over time.
Social media is social. On X it is pretty hard to be social when you have to pay for it (literally and figuratively).
On Mastodon everything you do is social. Likes have no meaning other than for good spirits, so people have a conversation mindset. Boosts have a large meaning, they are the only algorithm, so people are boosting with low bar.
On Bsky/Threads everything is mostly built on likes. People rarely re-share anything too ordinary, posts have to be EXCEPTIONAL to get shares or comments.
This is why I believe in open protocols over commercial war machines.
Threads by Instagram will launch on July 6th (thanks for the heads up @dansup!) & I noticed Meta collects a lot of data. So much data!
Threads is rumored to adopt ActivityPub later on (in October maybe‽ We will see), but when it joins the Fediverse (if not on launch day), it’s data collection policies will make it easier to convince some (but not all) to migrate over to Misskey, Pixelfed, Mastodon & Pleroma.
Note: Uploading on Misskey as my Mastodon account @darnell is being fixed server side right now.
Parker Molloy on #Threads screen recorded a Twitter search that appears to show dozens of bots responding to tweets with a boilerplate #OpenAI message.
One user commented:
"The bot activity is coming from inside the house (…) it appears these are stale accounts that were taken back over by XTwitter, turned into Blue Checkmarks and use AI to keep DAU/MAU and other activity metrics higher than they actually are."
Turns out, the launch of #Threads hasn't really slowed down #Mastodon account registrations. In fact, for July, they're actually higher than they've been for any month this year! As of the latest count, we're talking about:
2,414 new registrations in the last hour
A whopping 57,771 new registrations in the past day
This basically means that Threads hasn't put a damper on the demand for Mastodon. It's still going strong!
#Threads is not a text sharing platform, nor a #SocialMedia app. It's a platform for people to create natural language examples Meta can use for training #LLMs, for free
With #Threads becoming a hot topic once again, it's time for a reminder:
Admins are people too. When the announcement first happened, many admins got harassed, and threatened, if they federated with Threads (or even just thought about it). Many admins gave up and left.
#Meta's #Threads wanting to federate with the #fediverse (if that will ever happen 🤞🏻) is a form of #gentrification. A large corporate shopping mall settles in a nice neighborhood with small local run shops and community centers. The new shopping small says 'if we settle here, more people will come, and you all will benefit'. A few years later all small shops are bankrupt and the community is destroyed. What remains is a barren corporate landscape.
"Mark Zuckerberg is a homunculus budded off the carapace of Peter Thiel, plausible Cenobite and definite actual vampire"
When I clicked on this piece about #threads and #meta from @catvalente, I was expecting some nice cursing. But this is magnificent, Olympic Game level medal stuff. 🏅
From a city councillor in #Toronto and a reminder why government shouldn't abdicate the town square to unaccountable private apps like #Facebook, #Twitter, or #Threads.
Governments host their own email; they can now host their own social media.
In one media article after another we read about how Threads and Bluesky are "decentralized social media platforms." Guess what, you are not "decentralized" if you only have one "centralized" server.
Can we please stop giving #Bluesky and #Threads#Meta credit for being #decentalized platforms when all they have done is announce the intention to actually someday be decentralized. Both are currently entirely #centralized corporate platforms.
The European Court of Justice declares Meta's GDPR approach largely illegal (noyb.eu)
Meta/Facebook's approach to GDPR compliance is largely insufficient, according to a new ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union....